(aw, don't apologize for length - my last reply was too long for lj comments at all, I had to trim it a couple times to make it fit! We're quite good at this rambling thing, have you noticed? ^^;)
I have to say, I'm always fascinated by your knowledge of martial arts history/philosophy - your primary familiarity with Japanese culture comes from a completely different perspective than mine, and the contrast (and similarities!) intrigue me. I have a few friends who have done various styles (no judo, though) but no personal experience, just what I glean from things like Kenshin... ^^;;
The idea of duels/battles being used to test philosophies is primary to most fight shounen I've seen/read (and that's quite a bit, it's one of my favorite genres of manga!) so I'm not surprised that it comes from cultural tradition. It's one of the things that makes fights in animanga more interesting than a lot of action movies or Western comic books, because there's more at stake than sinmply who wins and saves the girl/planet/whatever - fights become a matter of *what* wins, what the victory says about the people and situation involved. (And it definitely helps in YGO specifically...card games aren't my thing; I wouldn't have any patience at all for the duels if it weren't for their significance to the story ^^;;;)
As far as Kaiba goes - I really like the idea that his problem is that Gozaburo infected Seto's honorable, positively competitive nature with the viral 'games = death', so that he lost the ability to view an opponent as a partner instead of just an enemy. And if he can bury that negative equation with Gozaburo, then he can finally recover, maybe learn to enjoy games again (isn't Yami saying something of the sort at the end of their duel in BC? Maybe I should translate some of that, too. Darn it, I need to get better at Japanese!) I suspect, though, even if Kaiba does start focusing more attention on his mission, the road to his goal - he's still going to be seeing it in terms of a battle. God help anyone who tries to get in the way of Kaiba Land construction... ^^;
And ee, the new fic's started! Looking forward to it ^__^
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winterfish
Re: I also got a name!
Date: 2006-05-10 08:19 am (UTC)I have to say, I'm always fascinated by your knowledge of martial arts history/philosophy - your primary familiarity with Japanese culture comes from a completely different perspective than mine, and the contrast (and similarities!) intrigue me. I have a few friends who have done various styles (no judo, though) but no personal experience, just what I glean from things like Kenshin... ^^;;
The idea of duels/battles being used to test philosophies is primary to most fight shounen I've seen/read (and that's quite a bit, it's one of my favorite genres of manga!) so I'm not surprised that it comes from cultural tradition. It's one of the things that makes fights in animanga more interesting than a lot of action movies or Western comic books, because there's more at stake than sinmply who wins and saves the girl/planet/whatever - fights become a matter of *what* wins, what the victory says about the people and situation involved. (And it definitely helps in YGO specifically...card games aren't my thing; I wouldn't have any patience at all for the duels if it weren't for their significance to the story ^^;;;)
As far as Kaiba goes - I really like the idea that his problem is that Gozaburo infected Seto's honorable, positively competitive nature with the viral 'games = death', so that he lost the ability to view an opponent as a partner instead of just an enemy. And if he can bury that negative equation with Gozaburo, then he can finally recover, maybe learn to enjoy games again (isn't Yami saying something of the sort at the end of their duel in BC? Maybe I should translate some of that, too. Darn it, I need to get better at Japanese!) I suspect, though, even if Kaiba does start focusing more attention on his mission, the road to his goal - he's still going to be seeing it in terms of a battle. God help anyone who tries to get in the way of Kaiba Land construction... ^^;
And ee, the new fic's started! Looking forward to it ^__^